Mizushima Hiro was born in a hospital in Tokyo on 13 April 1984. (It happens to be the National Thai New Year's Day!!) His mom was in labor for his elder sister who's 3 years older than him for 33 hours. But for Hiro, it's swift, only 3 hours was enough. And the second he came out to this world, he smiled, his mom told him.

He said he didn't do anything to it but his hair style resembles that of Beckham already.

Hiro weighed 3,000 grams at birth. In good health and cheerful. He always smiled and always in a very good mood.

This baby has huge eyes!! And that lovely little nose bridge! So rare for a Japanese baby. I think the cheeks must weigh half a kilogram each!

Just a few months old, he's grown to almost the same size as his fluffy toy. He's still not a cry-baby and very easy to look after.

What an ADORABLE baby!!! See how he drooled. Soooo cute. I'd like to kidnap him but I guess it's already too late!

He liked football from this age. That's no wonder because his father's a footballer but he'd already retired by the time Hiro was born.

When he's 3-4 years old he's a total cry-baby. He cried all the time! He hated his friends. He did not like to go to school. Everyday he made all kinds of excuses to not go to school but he couldn't fool anyone so he was dragged out to school which made him cry even more.

In his memory there's no pictures of him playing with his friends because he liked to cry alone. After school he still kept to himself as his elder sister didn't like to play with him. So he took a mayonnaise bottle out of the fridge and started walking aimlessly. That time he's really fond of mayonnaise. Along the way he'd picked flowers and leaves and put them into the mayonnaise and eat them!! As far as he can remember he said the flowers tasted better! When he chilled out enough, he'd go back home, put the mayonnaise bottle back in the fridge so no one would notice.

His family moved to Switzerland before he even entered grade school due to his father's work. One day his father said they're going out to dinner, Hiro was so happy he smiled all the way there.But when they reached the restaurant his father broke the news of going to have to stay abroad for 5-6 years. He didn't fully understand but he just felt he didn't want to go so he cried again.

This photo is from when he was 3.

When he was 4 he always fought with his elder sister but she's a very strong little girl he could never defeat her. This year he got a scar on his left cheek from the ring of his sister during a fight and it's still visible to this day. He also got the other scar from her at the end of his left eye.

The first thing he was shocked about Switzerland was the traffic which went the opposite way of Japan. And he almost got hit by a car. The town he lived in was surrounded by nature with vast vineyards. And there're cows and horses walking around. The Tokyo boy was utterly shocked. He met foreigners with hair and skin colors so different from his so he got even more lonely.

He went to an International school with no knowledge of English. Whenever someone approached him he always thought they'd tease and made fun of him. He was so pessimistic, a typical cry-baby, he said.

Hiro, surrounded by international friends. He's the one with the eyes closed.

Some pupils in the same classroom wouldn't want anything to do with him when they found out he's a Japanese. During snack breaks those pupils never touched his snacks. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to discuss this with his parents but he was too young to explain what he felt. Once a friend's purse was stolen, young Hiro became the prime suspect but his homeroom teacher said he wouldn't do such a thing. Finally the real thief was caught so from then on whatever happened he'd be defended.

Hiro in 5th grade in Switzerland.

He was impressed with Switzerland in the sense that he got to meet friends from different backgrounds and cultures. Even he was still a child he felt this world is so vast and accommodating various kinds of people.

In this photo, Hiro's the handsome little boy on the left.

After the sixth grade, Hiro had to returned to Japan. He missed Japan so much and was ecstatic. But at that time his English was better than Japanese so for 6 months he had to go to a Japanese school in the neighborhood in preparation. Somehow he couldn't fit in and the teachers said he got too strong-willed and could be a bad influence disciplinary wise. Sometimes he was so stressed out his fever ran as high as 39 degree celcius.

When Hiro could pass an exam into a junior high he began playing football seriously. He passed an audition for a professional training team but he got bullied by his sempais. Once he watched his sempais play and he bursted out honestly that , "You suck big time!" and he was marked from then on.

He was accustomed to saying stuff straight-forwardly in Switzerland and he didn't know he couldn't do that in Japan. He said he didn't mean any harm and he said it out so the sempais could try harder. But in Japanese society no one think the same way as him.

After class he was called by the sempais. At first he thought they might ask him to join the lineup. But when he arrived, he then was surrounded and got bullied. From then on he was under the black clouds, even he was in the starting lineup, no one sent the ball his way. Everywhere he turned he got bullied. He got nervous thinking as long as those sempais did not all graduated he wouldn't be able to live peacefully.

In high school he wanted to be like Nakata Hidetoshi.

So when he reached the third year of junior high and those sempais were all gone he could play fully. His team even won second place in a national tournament. But he was quite pissed off as the 1-0 defeat was from an own goal! Then he determined to be a professional footballer. When he reached high school he met with the same group of sempais again!

No. 7 jersey was his dream.

During high school years Hiro played football seriously. But his femur got fractured and the doctor forbid him to play again or else he wouldn't be able to walk. He was very sad but still kept a happy face in front of his friends. He got his own dream to play in the national stadium. He tried to suppress the pain and could finally play there. He reached his goal so he decided to quit football.

He wanted to go back abroad but he had no money. The sempais in his university advised him to model in order to make money fast. So he got into modelling then was asked to do some acting and the rest is history.

now I know why he's so good with English!I didn't know that he had been through a lot...and those bad sempais! maybe now they're regretting what they did to Hiro...maybe they're just jealous because Hiro is much better than them in football...